WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is growing in popularity again as a tourism
destination.
International arrivals to the U.S. jumped by 5% in 1999,
rebounding from 1998's 2.9% drop, the Commerce Department's Office
of Tourism Industries reported.
Included in the rebound were arrivals from overseas, which rose
3%. In 1998, overseas arrivals had dropped 2.1% for the first
decline in five years.
The Tourism Industries office called the growth in international
arrivals "stronger than expected." The 5% gain even topped
preliminary estimates from a few weeks ago, thanks to final figures
that showed a bigger than expected rise in arrivals from
Mexico.
The Tourism Industries office also said Canada's stronger
economy, a recovery in Asia and western Europe's relatively steady
economic growth contributed to the record 48.5 million
visitors.
Helen Marano, director of tourism development for the office,
also listed another factor: the continuation of marketing efforts
by U.S. destinations, even where arrival numbers were
declining.
"[Visitors] don't just bounce back to us," Marano said. "They
need to be securely pursued, and I think that's been happening over
the past year."
In 1999, the U.K. continued to close ground on Japan as the
biggest source of arrivals from overseas as Japan saw its lead
shrivel from nearly a million more arrivals than the U.K. in 1998
to less than 600,000 last year.
Japan's 1% decline in arrivals was smaller than expected and
much improved from the 9% drop in 1998. But the U.K. continued its
strong growth by posting a 7% increase.
The biggest source of international tourists for the U.S.
remains Canada, which sent just over 14 million people in 1999.
That's a 5% increase -- the first increase in three years, and
only the second in the last eight. That was "critical" to the
overall increase in international arrivals, Marano said.
A better economy had a lot to do with it, Marano said. But she
also said Canadians seem to have decided "this is where the
market's settled with the exchange rate. So let's just deal with
it" and travel to the U.S. anyway.
Arrivals from Mexico jumped 7%, thanks mainly to the
appreciation of the Mexican peso against the U.S. dollar, the
Tourism Industries office said.